Thursday, June 09, 2005

It seemed the lawyer already knew the right answer and had no need of askingJesus the question about inheriting eternal life. "Love the Lord your God.and love your neighbor as yourself." But then he asked another question."Who is my neighbor?" You would think that this would be a difficultquestion for the people now living in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood ofHebron.

Tel Rumeida is an ancient Biblical site, thought to be the place of thefirst capital of King David. Because of this history a group of the mostradical Israeli settlers has moved onto the site. These settlers constantlyharass the Palestinians who live nearby.

Recently one of the Palestinian men living in a home with the settlementenclave almost on top of his house talked about the settlers as being hisneighbors. As he related the story to me, one of the settlers was about tothrow stones and garbage at him and his house. He asked him to wait for amoment and talk with him before he threw things at him. "Can we make thepeace together?" he asked, and then said, "I accept you as my neighbor.Can you accept me as your neighbor?" The settler said he could not andthat, to make peace, the Palestinian would have to move his family to Egypt,Jordan or Iraq, so that he, the settler, could take over the Palestinian'shouse. The Palestinian said he would still be this man's neighbor if hisneighbor would let him.

The issue of neighbors and who can be accepted as neighbors is veryimportant here in Hebron where Israeli settlers live in close proximity totheir Palestinian neighbors. The situation is always tense and oftenbecomes violent. The answer of the Israeli government seems to be to buildbarriers of concrete, razor wire, checkpoints and constant military presenceto keep Palestinians and Israelis apart. It seems that here Frost's idea"good fences make good neighbors" is carried to a radical extreme, and thatmy Palestinian friend offers a refreshing alternative: be a neighbor.

Jesus answered the lawyer with a story of a man who was beaten and robbed bybandits. Two people who could be expected to help him would not. ASamaritan, who would not be expected to help, was moved with pity and helpedthe victim. Jesus took the question of the lawyer and transformed it. Thepoint was no longer to define neighbor, but to be a neighbor to everyone.Unknowingly my friend taught me a lesson in how to live that out.

About Me

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, Section 2 states "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."
This blog advocates for the implementation of the Palestinians' inalienable right to return home and calls upon each and every blogger concerned about human rights, justice, and a durable peace in the Middle East to get behind the effort to advocate for its implementation. If you support implementation of this inalienable right, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I will link to you.